I Shall Not Drink Again (3)

"Well then. Considering the time, we ought to draw only one or two more questions and bring this to a close."

The holy knight gave a considering hum, nodded, and slipped a hand into the box.

"Yes. This question is the following. 'Now that the broadcast has reached its one-year mark, which member's first impression and your present evaluation of them have diverged the most?'"

"Ah, this question..."

Mary flinched on the spot.

"What's wrong, sis?"

"Nothing. It's just that this same question came up at the Gen 1 senpais' first anniversary, too. How do I put it... it was the question where that remark showed up..."

"That remark? ...Ah. You mean Tama-chan's."

"Tama-nee? I think back then every single Gen 1 answer was unanimously Tama-nee... oh."

"You mean when Maya-senpai said Tama-senpai's weakness was one hundred percent anal?"

"Who held a discussion on that subject?! She only said that something like that had happened once..."

Mary denied it in a fluster, but the viewers did not so much as pretend to listen. Slander has no need of the truth. It needs to be fun.

"Don't react like that, Mary-nee. The viewers are adults who act like children, and if you bite, they only get worse."

"But they're talking about a person like she's into ana— ...a-anyway, like she's interested in that."

"Cheer up, sis. Want me to lick your feet?"

"Why do you keep saying things like that?!"

Mary's avatar expression whipped through one face after another. Satisfied with the reaction, Sae broke into a giggle.

"Well... Sir Mary's case is simply what one might call reaping what one has sown."

"Well, yeah. On the fetish question, everybody else wrote 'thighs,' or 'armpits' at the very most, and Shutan alone got insanely specific and put down 'making them lick my feet.'"

"Ugh..."

Already, more than once, remarks in the register of you okay? want me to touch your chest? had come out as offers to lick her feet. The cause, just as Serena had said, was Mary's own self-destruction.

A fetishism question had sprung up early in the broadcast. The others gave answers closer to simple preferences than to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fetishes, and even those that strayed into fetish territory were comparatively ordinary and harmless. Mary alone had answered having someone else lick my feet — so specific that it could not be taken as anything but sincere.

The chat at the time had, of course, gone completely feral. It was plastered wall to wall with prpr, lick-lick, and piled high with talk of how she really was a queen, and of whether anything that concrete meant she had actual experience.

She did not, of course, bring up Han Seoyeon. There was nothing that particularly needed saying, and unless management gave a specific instruction, a standing order had come down to refrain from any mention of Sister. The thought that no one would have guessed even without all that, she did not bother putting into words.

Most information, even if it slipped out by accident, would never be believed. Who in the world would expect them to debut an Apostle as a VTuber?

And yet why is this one actually real.

She had thought it for a long time, but the president of Anapro was truly no ordinary person. It even made her wonder whether one had to be at least this far gone to serve as a friend to the Seven Great Madmen. A precedent by the name of Sarah Groothuizen did exist, granted — but her identity was information so secret that even Han Seoyeon had learned of it only extremely recently.

"In any case, shall we go ahead and reveal the answers? You have all finished writing, I trust?"

"Yes. I've finished."

"I'm good too."

"Done—."

"All finished over here~"

While Mary was turning all of this over, the others seemed to have finished their answers. Once Tsubasa had confirmed with everyone and given the signal, an exaggerated ba-bam of a sound effect played, and text appeared beneath each member's avatar.

It was handwriting, composed on the tablets issued to each of them.

"Whoa. Surprisingly even spread. I'm not on there, though."

"Sir Charlotte is, how shall I put it... not the slightest bit different from her first impression."

"Right. Char-nee's first impression and her current one are both just pure ikemen."

"Is that so?"

The werewolf tilted her head, lightly.

"Then shall we begin by asking each of you for your reasons? Sir Mary first. Why did you think of me that way?"

"Ah, how should I put this... Tsubasa-chan was a little hard to approach at first. There was the strict holy knight feeling, and just — an incredible dignity pouring off of her very presence."

"Meaning that has changed now, I take it?"

"Mmm... seriously, you were fourth-dimensional beyond anything I imagined, you..."

"I thought she was a cool, dignified big sister, but these days the only impression I get is pseudo-masochist with a taste for shit games."

"Masochist... no, before that, I have never streamed a game that would warrant the expression 'shit game.'"

"You saying that with a completely straight face is exactly what kills it, you know?"

At Tsubasa's look of genuine bewilderment, Mary heaved a deep sigh. This was not the reaction of a person who, the moment a fresh wave of viewers flowed in, laid down the law with shit games and shook every last one of them off.

Incidentally, for this very reason Amairo Tsubasa's channel recorded the lowest subscriber count among the members of Anathema. The viewers who remained even after treatment like that were loyalists of the most extreme sort, and so the channel's actual revenue apparently did not lag all that far behind.

"On the other hand, Tsubasa-chan picked Serena-chan. How come?"

Following the flow, it was Mary's turn to ask. At the question, Tsubasa nodded once and answered.

"Under other circumstances my answer might have been a little different, but today I saw an entirely new side of her. To think that she was all talk, and in reality such a tremendous klutz."

"I keep telling you it's not like that! No, more than that, why are you trying to kneecap someone else's RP— eh, uhm? Tsubasa-chan? Why are you suddenly shoving your face in..."

"Sir Serena."

"Ah, um, this isn't close, right? No, it is close. Not a guess — this is definitely close!"

Tsubasa's holy knight avatar leaned its body to one side. Then, at a certain moment, the movement cut off dead, and it became blatantly obvious that she had gone outside the camera's tracking range.

By contrast, the violet woman in the witch hat moved as if trying to dodge something. Her eyes went perfectly round, and her mouth opened and shut several times over.

"No, if you do it like this I'm going to get the wrong idea. You know I like women, so in a situation like this I end up thinking weird things without meaning to, right? Mm-hm. If you became the target of that kind of delusion too, Tsubasa-chan, you'd hate it, wouldn't you?"

"Presented with this, Sir Serena certainly becomes talkative. ...Well. If it is you who is my counterpart, Sir, I do not particularly mind even if you harbor such thoughts."

"H-hueeh?"

And at the words Tsubasa murmured, Serena froze solid where she stood.

"Ah, viewers. You won't be able to see it on screen, but Serena-chan's face has gone insanely red. She looks like she's about to burst."

"W-why would you say that, Charlotte-chan?!"

"But I really felt this was something I had to tell them, you know?"

"—Well. It is like this. From the first impression, I never thought she was a person who would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠show so violent a reaction merely from having a face brought in this close."

Tsubasa soon returned to her own seat with a perfectly calm expression and went on. Then she glanced at the chat.

"Yes? You are asking whether that action just now was only for the sake of the explanation? Yes. Of course. Seeing it directly would be easier for you viewers to understand, would it not?"

"Sob, sob, my pure love got played with..."

"Then, Sir Serena, whose pure love has been played with. An explanation of your answer, if you would."

"Tsubasa-chan, aren't you seriously way too heartless...?"

Even so, the way she immediately launched into this sort of exaggerated fake sobbing suggested that Serena had recovered her composure quickly enough. Considering a self-esteem lower than her demeanor let on, she might even have been relieved to hear, from the speaker's own mouth, that it had not been sincere.

Either way, what ended well had ended well. Mary gave a wry smile.

"The last question... 'What is your favorite game?' ...Ah."

"Aaaagh, quick, cover Shutan's ears! Who threw a question like this?!"

"Mary-nee, calm down first!"

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"Evil spirit, get out of Shutan's body this instant!"

"...You do realize I'm actually going to get angry, Serena-san?"

"......I'm sorry."